


The House on Cherry Lane

by Stralia_Harker



Series: The House On.. Series [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Mentions of Violence, non Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22689637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stralia_Harker/pseuds/Stralia_Harker
Summary: Urban Legends have truth in their roots. What happened in the house on Cherry Lane.
Series: The House On.. Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632169
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	The House on Cherry Lane

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd, First in series. Constructive feedback welcome.

Every town has one. The house no one wants. The one with the stories, the truth long forgotten behind the legends. The house on Cherry Lane. was that house now. It had once belonged to old man Hargrove. He’d moved to Hawkins in 83’ with his wife, daughter and son in tow. The son was trouble making type, or so Old Man Hargrove had the town believing. The kid’s name was Billy. It wasn’t hard for the old man to spin tales about his son. Billy was a known fixture at parties, always with a new girl on his arm. He could often be seen tearing around town in his camaro, cigarette hanging from his lips, light glinting off the earring dangling from his ear. 

Not too long after the family moved to town Billy had an altercation with the Harrington boy, it had been the town gossip for weeks, only dying out when Harrington’s wounds healed up. Billy wasn’t seen for nearly a week after, people believing he had been in jail, some speculating he had been taken to juvie other’s saying he skipped town. He reappeared with a limp, right hand in a cast, earring missing and long hair cut off. He’d become strangely subdued. Kept his head down, did his work, no longer showing up at the parties. His father ranting to anyone who would listen about how embarrassed he was about his son’s actions, lamenting his problem child. 

Slowly it happened, Billy would show up with a new bruise, a black eye , something cut. Always the same story from his dad, he was off getting into fights. Causing a ruckus. Sometimes he disappears for days, only to turn up as though nothing had happened. He’d simply shrug when asked where he’d been. He avoided questions about his home life. Saying simply that he was fine. He picked his sister up from school and carted her around town. He made sure they were home on time, he was diligent about it. 

Old man Hargrove and his wife separated. She took her daughter and moved out. Stories flew, infidelity, was the popular one. Billy wasn’t seen for 17 days after Susan and Max moved out. The school was told there was a family emergency back in California and Billy went back to help out. Really he’d been dumped in a park up in Indianapolis, he was in a hospital recuperating. His father showed up once the police contacted him, the mask of a concerned parent secured. He returned home with stories of his ailing aunt and her broken hip.  
The house seemed normal. In the mornings Neil would leave for work as the sun was beginning to rise. An hour or so later the camaro would roar to life, Billy headed to school. The boy would be home by 4, could be seen in the kitchen window and at 515 everyday he set the table, dinner ready at 530 when his father walked in the door. They kept to themselves, Neil only speaking to the neighbors when he apologized for raising his voice a little too much, it was just that sometimes Billy didn’t listen. 

It was a Thursday morning, 4 am when the legend began. Mrs. Collins woke up, she thought she heard screaming, she listened but heard nothing more. She looked out the window, Neil Hargroves truck was peeling out of the driveway. At 6 am there was a knock at the door, Hawkins police. They asked if she’d heard anything last night. She told them about the scream, but she wasn’t sure if she was dreaming. She mentioned the truck. Apparently Billy was now missing. 

There had been an anonymous tip, something had happened at the Hargrove house. Neil had been seen leaving in a hurry at 4 am. The police arrived just before he did. The house was in disarray. There was a broken glass, blood on the shards. There was blood all through the house, not enough to believe anyone had bled out, but enough to be of concern. There was a trail that went out the back door and ended in the grass. Neil couldn’t or wouldn’t tell them where Billy was. He maintained that Billy had attacked him and Neil got away, drove off til Billy calmed down. He said Billy had to run away. The problem was if Billy ran away, it didn’t seem he took anything with him. Clothes still in his drawers and closet, camaro still in the drive, keys sitting on his desk. 

The town had been used to Billy disappearing, but this time he didn’t return. He had simply vanished. From then on the town looked at Neil a little differently. People thought about Billy and their perception of him changed as well. His ex step family came forward, Susan telling how she said Neil beat Billy, how she was trying to get custody. The courts backed her up, she had filed papers, she had just needed a little more time. Max told them how she sometimes saw Billy cleaning wounds in the bathroom. She and Susan made their regrets well known, they should have taken him with them. They should have said something sooner. And as small town rumors go, this one spread and was now mostly considered fact, Neil had killed Billy and buried him somewhere in the woods. 

Neil was isolated now, the town barely being civil. He came and went on his own. He spent most of his town at the bar on the outskirts of town. More often than not he was in the drunk tank. Once he’d been arrested after he showed up at Susan’s, reeking of whiskey and refusing to leave until she took him back, telling him she knew they were better off without Billy. She locked the door and took Max to the bedroom with her to wait for the police. 

Six months after Billy’s disappearance Susan and Max left Hawkins, they were going back to California. With no proof of Billy’s death, the investigation had stopped. With no one left of his old life, Neil became surly. He yelled drunkenly at children passing, parents telling their kids to keep away from his house, to walk on the other side of the street. He was the boogeyman of Hawkins, the stories went from him killing his son to to him killing numerous children. Rumor was, they moved from California because he had almost been caught. 

He became Old Man Hargrove, he was Hawkins equivalent to Freddy Krueger. Stay away from Old Man Hargrove, don’t look him in the eye, check your room. He eventually drank himself to death. He wasn’t found for almost a week, it was the smell the neighbors reported. They rolled him out and away from that house. It was reported that his son’s room was still in tact, left exactly how it was the day he disappeared. No one knew for sure, the police let no one in and the realtors who took it over cleaned it out. 

Susan was notified, she was still listed as his next of kin. She politely informed the police that she would not be claiming his body. Neil was buried without fanfare, a plot in the back of the cemetery. There was no service, no one would have attended anyway. His grave was marked with a small plaque, bearing only his name and dates of birth and death. The town seemed to breathe easier with him gone. They grieved his son, the boy they ignored, Neil taking the secret of what happened to the grave. 

The house on Cherry Lane stood empty for almost a year. No one would buy it, it’s history tainted by the memory of a boy gone too soon and the man that took him. Or so that’s what the town believed. The house was demolished when it was determined it wouldn’t sell. It’s a vacant lot now. Urban legends told about the house and the family that used to occupy the lot. All legends are rooted in truth, the same goes for the legends of the house on Cherry Lane, the truth however is far more interesting.


End file.
